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Dwight Sanders head shot

Dwight Sanders

Dwight Sanders enters his third season as head coach of the Skyhawks softball team in 2024. 

In 2023, the Skyhawks finished the season with a 23-26 overall record and a 21-21 clip in conference play. The program was 15-5 at home, including an 11-game home win-streak that included a pair of series sweeps. The team improved in most statistical categories, including home runs where the Skyhawks notched 40 compared to just 16 in 2022. Six players were named to the All-RMAC Honor Roll team, including Alex Tenorio, Alyssa Gutierrez, Amiee Shanks, Sloan Shotton, Cat Rodman, and Kayla Stone. Additionally, Shanks was named First-Team All-Academic while four additional student-athletes earned a spot on the Honor Roll. 

In his first season on campus, Sanders and his team battled back from an 0-14 start to finish to a 20-31 overall mark and a 20-20 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. The team's success in the regular-season allowed for a No. 6-seed in the RMAC Tournament. The team had four players named to the All-RMAC Teams at the conclusion of the season, led by a Second Team pickup from Katie Pippel. Cara Daugherty, Cat Rodman, and Alex Tenorio rounded out the group with Honorable Mention accolades. 

Dwight Sanders was hired as the eighth Head Softball Coach in program history in July of 2021, coming to Durango after five winning seasons and four postseason berths at Otero Junior College in La Junta, compiling an overall record of 117-85 during his tenure.
 
He guided the Rattlers to a 24-15 record this past spring, with his team setting the school record for batting average (.423), placing three student-athletes on the NJCAA All-Region IX team, and sending six players on to NCAA Division II institutions.
 
Sanders demonstrated the ability to build deep and versatile rosters at OJC as the 2021 Rattlers ranked inside the top-25 nationally in eight different categories, including third in batting average (.423), sixth in triples (24) and on-base percentage (.491), and seventh in stolen bases (171). His team also shined in the classroom, sporting a 3.71 GPA and placing 17 student-athletes on the NJCAA Academic All-American teams.
 
Additional highlights for Sanders at OJC included the program being nationally ranked twice — climbing as high as No. 14 in the country in 2018-19 — while raising over $32,000 for the program and securing a three-year sponsorship deal with Mizuno.
 
Sanders was a Colorado prep baseball standout at Fountain Fort Carson High School from 2008-11, earning a scholarship to play at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
 
He transferred back home to Colorado State University-Pueblo to finish his career from 2014-16, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. He'd go on to complete his master's degree in Business in May of 2021.

COACHING EXPERIENCE
2016-21 Otero College, Head Coach
2021-Present Fort Lewis, Head Coach
 
PLAYING EXPERIENCE 
2012-13 Claflin University
2014-16 Colorado State University-Pueblo